Beatles – A Hard Day’s Night (Dr. Ebbett DBM-016)

A Hard Day’s Night, I Should Have Known Better, If I Fell, I’m Happy Just To Dance With You, And I Love Her, Tell Me Why, Can’t Buy Me Love, Any Time At All, I’ll Cry Instead, Things We Said Today, When I Get Home, You Can’t Do That, I’ll Be Back

A Hard Day’s Night is The Beatles’ third LP and was first released on July 10, 1964 to correspond with the release of the film. The first compact disc release was on February 26, 1987 in mono only. Many collectors complained about the mono transfer by EMI for the first four albums, but particular complaint has been centered on this album. Part of the reason why the official release was so bad was because the record company at first wanted to issue it in stereo, but they were not satisfactory to George Martin and he simply transferred the stereo mixes into mono, losing a lot of the bass and drum sounds leading to a need for needle drops of the original mono LP. Millennium Remasters issued the mono at least twice. The U.K. collection (PMC 1230/MFSL 1-103) came out in 2002 with both the mono and stereo versions. Collectors noted there seems to be faint traces of vinyl surface noise on the mono transfer. Two years later they issued both the mono and stereo LPs again (EAS 70123/EAS 80552). The mono was again taken from the 1982 mono LP box set while the stereo didn’t come from the MFSL edition but rather the 1978 blue box.

Dr. Ebbett first issued the mono A Hard Day’s Night (PMC 1230) in 2003. This new version is on silver pressed disc instead of cdr and is, as one reviewer noted, “excellent mono – centered and clear. As with the other UK mono albums offered by the Doc I prefer this one over the official Apple release.” The DBM version is pristine and clear with no mastering faults whatsoever. It is also interesting comparing the differences between the stereo and mono mixes of the songs which reveal several differences. The mono “A Hard Day’s Night” is several seconds shorter than the stereo. In “I Should Have Known Better,” there is no gap in the harmonica introduction and the mono has three repeats of the closing line instead of four. Lennon’s opening vocal is not double tracked in the beginning of “If I Fell” and “Tell Me Why” as it is in stereo. The artwork is again inspired by the MFSL covers for some odd reason, but in general this is an nice sounding transfer of the UK mono LP.